FreeMind 0.9.0: The New Features

A great release is to come. We have many exciting new features: WYSIWYG-Editing for nodes and notes, scripting, filter, attributes and many more.

But all these new features still need a lot of testing and documentation. To start this, please have a look at the newest version here and tell us your opinions.

Use this wiki page for documenting the new features.

But: Don't use this version for productive maps. It is not stable enough!

• Further warning: If you create a map with Attributes, it will open as a "New Map" with no data in version 0.8. Your data is not lost, just not readable by 0.8.
• You can try to convert the 0.9.0 - saved map back to 0.8.0 by following steps

1. Make the backup copy of the map
2. Open it with the 0.9.0 again
3. Select all nodes
4. Format-> use plain text
5. Save
6. Open the mind map file in text editor
7. Remove all lines starting with <attribute_registry> and ending with <attribute_registry/>
8. Save the file and try to open it in 0.8.0

If it does not help you should use the 0.9.0.

Attributes

FIXME: An introduction should be given here explaining what attributes are and what they are good for. Why should the user learn how to fiddle around with attributes if he does not know what they are?

Attributes provide different perspectives for ordering/viewing your MindMap. Attributes are tuple name/value pairs that are globally available i.e. can be tagged to any node and assigned specific values. For example, you can create shopping lists, add notional weightings, performance metrics, etc. The real power of attribute comes from writing Groovy scripts that can operate on attribute value or change the behavior of a node. For example, you can summarize the info contained within several nodes for a total cost. Attributes are complemented by Filters.

Real world example: I use Attributes and Filters after taking staff meeting notes. Immediately after a meeting, I assign attributes to nodes as applicable: Attribute 1 is "Name", values are the names of my staff; Attribute 2 is "Priority", values are numbers 1-5. The "Assign Attributes..." dialogue allows me to select all comments from a certain staff member and then assign their name to those nodes at once. If there is an action required, I might assign a priority. Filters allow me to quickly see only nodes from a certain staff member, or specific priority levels, or any combination. --Dnbarg 20:21, 22 Oct 2007 (PDT)

Quick Attribute creation

• Select node.
• Edit Attribute: Alt-F9 or, Rt-click>Edit attributes.
• Type in an Attribute name.
• Then add a value if desired.
• Edit with the Attribute Manager later if necessary.

Using Attribute Manager

• Open the attribute manager with attribute icon on toolbar or, Tools>Attribute Manager.

---

Working with Attributes

• Click the "Edit" button in the "All Attributes" row
• Select attribute names from existing names to Rename/Delete in popup dialog
• Enter new attribute name to Add in popup dialog
• Press "Close" to close the dialog after all changes are done

Create Attribute

• Type in your Attribute name, then press add
• Repeat to add multiple attributes

Create Attribute values

• type the value, then press "Add"
• It's a good idea to add a blank value to the list. It helps when assigning attributes later

Every Attribute can have multiple values

• eg. I use an Attribute called "Staff" and the values are the staff person's name
• eg. I use an Attribute called "Priority" and the values are #'s 1 to 5

Delete Attribute

• Select the menu option Tools/Attribute Manager, to open the panel Attribute Manager.
• In the line "All Attributes" of this panel, click on the icon in the last column (Edit). This opens a new panel "All Attributes".
• In this panel, select the attribute name, then press "Delete".

Delete Attribute values

• Select the value, then press "Delete"
• All attributes with the deleted value are removed from the whole map

   All attributes with the deleted name and/or value are removed from the whole map

Rename Attribute

• Select the attribute name to be renamed, type the new name, then press "Rename"
• All attributes with the renamed value are adjusted

Rename Attribute values

• Select the value to be renamed, type the new value, then press "Rename"
• All attributes with the renamed value are adjusted

Working with Attribute values (in Attribute Mgr)

• After adding Attributes, you should see them listed under the "Attributes" column heading
• Click on the "Edit" button in the row of your new Attribute and add the values
• Edit attribute values in popup dialog
• Press "Close" to close the dialog after all changes are done

Assign Attributes to nodes

assigning only a few nodes

• Choose the node, press Alt-F9 or, Rt-Click the node and choose "Edit Attributes"
• To add more attribute per node, use TAB key (if View>Attributes>Show all attributes is selected), or use the following.
• got to: Tools>"Assign attributes..."
• choose "Selected Nodes" or "Visible Nodes"
• from the drop down list, choose the Attribute you want to assign. (Here it helps when there's a blank value. You can assign an Attribute to all nodes needing it, and then set the value later, on a node by node basis)
• press the "Add" button to assign the Attribute to the node/s
• add more than one attribute to a node if necessary
• delete attributes from multiple nodes with this dialog

Viewing/Hiding Attributes

to see an icon on nodes with attributes

• Tools>Preferences>Appearance>Show icon for attributes

show all attributes

• Alt-s or, View>Attributes>Show all attributes

show no attributes

• Alt-h or, View>Attributes>Show no attributes

show selected attributes

• in the Attribute Manager, select desired Attributes in the "Selected Visible" column
• then, View>Attributes>Show selected Attributes

optimize the width of the Attribute/value table

• Rt-click on the Attribute and choose optimal width

User feedback

Bugs concerning attributes

• Better sorting of the options: Add Attribute > Delete this Attribute > Delete all Attributes. Numerous times I accidentally clicked on the middle button which is now (beta20) "Alle Werte löschen" when I intended to only "Diesen Wert löschen", because it is on the same line where I specify the criteria, which attribute value pair I try to delete JR 13:16, 8 Oct 2008 (UTC)
• The key bindings alt-s and alt-h do not work as expected for showing or hiding attributes.--yushen 02:23, 25 Nov 2006 (PST)
• When Attributes are visible, scrolling with mouse wheel stops when cursor is over the attribute of a node. --Terkor 20:11, 27 Aug 2007 (PDT)
• If I set attributes, I can't export the map in PDF. It's ok in flash, png, xhtml, jpeg. Beta 17 on Ubuntu 8.04 - Sun Java -- freemind@smci.ch 2008-05-23
• If I add a blank character such as space after an attribute name, it is not considered as the same attribute (no trim) --Patco 19:27, 19 Jun 2008 (PDT)
• If you create attributes for the first time, but not assign them to a node, they won't be saved in your document --kvantomme 17:15, 3 Dec 2008 (GMT+1)
• Selecting an attribute with the arrow keys (from the dropdown) and then pressing tab makes the attributes box disappear.--kar 18:19, 12 Mar 2009 (UTC)

Bugs or features? (questions about attributes to the developers)

• The context menu key on the keyboard doesn't open the context-menu. --Jan 01:07, 4 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• When changing the font-size of a node by keyboard-shortcut (ctrl+"+" / crtl+"-") the fontsize-combobox of the toolbar isn't refreshing. --Jan 01:00, 4 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• When adding an attribute to a node which already has the attribute, the attribute will be shown as many times as added. However, when deleting the attribute from node, all instances of the attribute would be deleted.--yushen 02:23, 25 Nov 2006 (PST)

• In version 0.9.0b13, the bug is corrected (i.e. deleting one attribute does not delete all other attributes with the same name). So, the possibility to have several attributes with the same name but different values ought probably to be considered as a feature, not a bug ? For example the attribute "child" could have the values "Peter" and "Mary" attached to a given node "Paul and Jane" to include in the map the information that Paul and Jane have at least 2 children named Peter and Mary (if I understood correctly the notion and usefulness of attributes)? --Miclav 01:56, 9 Sep 2007 (PDT)

• It is not possible to delete an attribute from the List of attributes. If one is created, it lives forever .... It seems that using tool/assign attribute by selecting the attribute in question, and select delete all values, it's possible to remove an attribute of a node. --yushen 21:19, 15 Jan 2007 (PST)

• You can remove or even rename some attributes and attribute values from the map using the attribute manager. Use Tools->Attribute Manager->All Attributes->[edit]->[click on attribute]->[Delete] --DimitriPolivaev 05:12, 9 Sep 2007 (PDT)

• It is not intuitive to go to Tools->Assign Attributes to set attributes on several nodes. I expected to be able to select several nodes (or all) and use Edit->Attributes. It didn't occur to me to look on the Tools menu for Editing. -- JimK
• The workflow in the Assign Attributes dialog is backwards: actions should be from left to right, top to bottom. I suggest moving the buttons to the right side. It's also strange why Add & Delete have one section and Replace has another. From user viewpoint they're all the same. Just need one name/value input box? -- JimK
• The title of the Assign Attributes dialog box has an extra character in "Assign" that should be removed. -- JimK
• Attributes are a great idea, but the whole dialog thing is very slow to work with. And it sucks to have a dialog over your workspace. I suggest making attributes work pretty much like a dynamic list of icons in terms of user interface:
  • Make a toolbar dedicated to adding attribute values to nodes. Put the toolbar on the right side of the screen, make a button for every value, so that it can be assigned with one click.
    • This is so that, rather than choosing "apply to selected" or "apply to visible", you can use the standard built in selecting mechanisms, and apply attributes the same way that you apply icons.
      • You also have the added bonus of standardizing the interface somewhat.
  • Put a selector box, or in the case of a low number of attribute value pairs, section them off, so you never need more than one or two clicks to assign an attribute.
  • Have an empty box in the toolbar for new attribute or value definitions.
  • Remove the attribute assignment dialog.
  • Here's a visual sample. I found it was easier just to illustrate it: Media:FreeMindAttributeToolbar.png --RazielJaTier 22:50, 20 May 2008 (PDT)
• There is a bug in the browser applet of 0.9.0-Beta19 related to notes attached on nodes: if you switch between nodes the text of the note in the bottom window don't get updated, unless you select a node without a note and go back to one with a note. I guess the method onSelectHook(NodeView pNode) in NodeNoteViewer.java isn't called when switch between nodes with notes. --Jens 14:20, 11 Aug 2008 (PDT)

Wishes concerning attributes

• I love the attribute & filter feature & see great potential ahead. Being able to name & save searches would also be extremely useful.--Felipe 07:34, 26 Apr 2007 (PDT)
• Really wish for a feature to only selectively show the attribute of the node in focus. The current options of "show all attributes", "show the selected attributes" all apply to all the nodes visible. With all nodes showing attributes, it occupy too much space. I wish that it only shows all the attributes for the current node being selected, i.e. in focus. This would be often enough for normal use.--yushen 20:36, 1 Dec 2006 (PST)
  • Yes, please! --Magnus 09:33, 27 Jan 2010 (UTC)
• Default attributes of new node: I need to add some attributes to all new nodes. Therefore, I wish that there is mechanism to automatically stuff some default attributes to all the new nodes created after the functionality is enabled. This function may be configured to enable/disable. --yushen 21:19, 15 Jan 2007 (PST)
• Or there is functionality to add a group of selected attributes to a group of selected nodes through one operation. --yushen 21:19, 15 Jan 2007 (PST)

• You explained how to create attribute etc... but after spending "only" 30 minutes on it, what is the real interest in practice of such feature ? What is the use of attributes ? not clear what it can be used for ....--Djerr 17:49, 20 Jan 2007

• Roll-up: It'd be really nice (and quite natural) to be able to roll-up (summarize or otherwise) the values of certain attributes (eg. money, time, resource requirements, etc) from children to parent nodes. --azimmer 16:58, 14 Feb 2007

• See also the discussion page

• Adding "Attribute" is a great idea (for me ;-) !). There's a long time that I'm thinking of using freemind in an Artificial Intelligence way. Using Attribute, simultaneously with groovy, may help me for creating rules. Thanks ! --PLANTING 12 Aug 2007
• A way to copy and paste all the attributes assigned to a node or one of these attributes would be nice. Perhaps a "Copy Attribute" and "Copy All Attributes" in popup menu when you right-click on the attributes of a node. --Terkor 10:06, 30 Aug 2007 (PDT)
  • Seconded --Sando 22:26, 21 Oct 2009 (UTC)

• A way to assign different types of data to attributes: AKA Boolean, Integer, Date, Text, etc.
• Refactor/sort nodes by attribute: Dunno if anybody knows the dashboard plugin for mindmanager, but this idea is similar (except better cause it uses custom attributes). basically, any given attribute/group of attributes would be a parent node. And the values of the attribute would be the children. The nodes with those values would branch off from that. Would allow for awesome fluid mindmaps that could show all sorts of relationships between nodes without ruining the linear structure of the map, allowing for scheduling, budgeting, etc. I'm creating some example mindmaps which show how this feature would be incredibly usefull for something like scheduling.
• Sorting function would be great, but I propose it on the node (alphabetical). Having it on the attribute means for me having to update individually each node's attribute, which would take more time than sorting them by hand. I imagine a function sorting alphabetically all subnodes 1st level of the selected node. Franck --Fb5 03:55, 6 Dec 2007 (PST)
  • I'd agree with 'sort nodes by attribute' above. I'm a mindmanager user and being able to easily and interactively prioritise tasks on a node is very useful. In mm I just use the pre-defined priority icons, and sort accordingly. This is useful, but freemind with multi-attributes could offer more powerful sorts.
  • I too would really like to see the ability to alphabetize sub-nodes. I often copy lists of plain text that are delimited by line-breaks into freemind that are not alphabetized. As is, I first have convert this plain text to be delimited by double-line-break with a text editor, then pasting to a node produces a sub-node for each item. After that I have to alphabetize these sub-nodes ctrl-up/ctrl-down. So in addition to being able to alphabetize sub-nodes, I propose an advance paste option in the context menu that allows you to specify single-line-breaks as a "node-creation-delimiter". Or more flexibly, allow the user to indicate the delimiter by which sub-nodes are created. But keep in mind, most people won't know how to specify line-breaks, tabs, whitespace, etc. So, those types of special character should be selectable, rather than user-entered.

• A way to add new attributes using just the keyboard. I use keyboard shortcuts quite often with FreeMind and not having the ability to quickly add/change/delete attributes with the keyboard makes them much less useful. --Verifex 15:57, 8 Dec 2007 (PST)
  • What about Alt+F9 for selecting the attribute table and F2 for editing, TAB for adding? DimitriPolivaev
• Some attributes should be single-valued. Right now they all seem to be multi-valued. For example, I want only want attribute named Priority per node. -- JimK
• Hopefully you're going to add Help to dialog boxes? When I'm in Attribute Manager I don't understand all the choices. I should be able to view help about them from within the app rather than going to a Website/wiki. -- JimK
• Clicking on the "Icon for Attributes" could show/hide the attributes.
  • Seconded --Sando 22:26, 21 Oct 2009 (UTC)
• Ability to have "Optimal Width" applied on all nodes by default.
  • Seconded. A preference for the default width would help as well. --Icekiss 08:08, 19 Apr 2008 (PDT)
    • This function would be a valuable addition --Sando 22:26, 21 Oct 2009 (UTC)
• It would be great to have the possibillity to group attributes and give these groups names. These names may be treated as node types. One may assign a node type to a node meaning the node gets automatically all the attributes of this type. With this it would be possible to define for instance a node type like activity with attribute like who, start date, percent complete and so on. An easy way to assign node types to nodes, for instance something like default type for new nodes depending on parent node would be the cherry on top.
• I've been using beta 15 seriously for a project. Filtering is wonderful, and what I really need is sub-node sorting by attribute and/or icon priority. (Please!) - johnn

• Don't know if it should be here or not. But actually, it would be nice if we could apply the same kind of filter to the icons:
  • it would be faster
  • it would be simpler, as some kind of default attribute+values
  • it allows also multiple values (i can have multiple icons for one same branch)
• This would probably require to expand the list of icons to have more of the different types of notions that can be represented in a tool as FreeMind:
  • relative to decision making: delay (e.g. hourglass), optionality, assumption/hypothesis, problem/inconsistency (e.g. lighting), advantage ("thumb up", "+/-"), inconvenient ("thumb down","+/-"),cause, consequence, risk,
  • relative to life in general: user (people), group, time (clock), time interval, machine, etc.--Patco 19:48, 19 Jun 2008 (PDT)
• Keyboard assigning of attributes is a bit clumsy. Ideally, instead of using the arrow keys to select, the appropriate attribute would be suggested just by typing its first few letters. Then tab could be pressed to select and go to the next attribute.--kar 17:45, 12 Mar 2009 (UTC)
• the attribute icon has not the same meaning than the others. For example, with an ordered list (with icons "1", "2", "3" ...), having a node with attributes will disorganize the position of the icons! -- Patco

• I would like to have "recursive" attributes (attributes that are implicitly inherited by child nodes). I attempted to use attribute to mark up parts of the mind map, and then use the filtering functions to show only those parts having a certain aspect. This did not work out very well since I always had to add the corresponding attribute/value to each new child node. --Magnus 09:34, 27 Jan 2010 (UTC)

Filter

Create filters to view and print the data more effectively

Clicking on the little funnel to the left of the zoom size toggles on and off the Filter Toolbar. By default (i.e. in absence of any personal filter defined, see below) the values that can be selected in the List box of the Filter Toolbar are:

• No Filtering
• Currently Selected Nodes

To create a filter for one Attribute:

• to the right of the filter status, click "Edit"
• in the drop down menu at the top left, select your attribute
• the expression drop changes to "Exists"
• press "Add", then "OK" at the bottom
• all nodes with the selected Attribute will be shown, and the branches that don't contain these nodes will be hidden.
• To display, on the contrary, all branches that do not contain nodes with the given attribute, click on Edit, then, in panel Filter Composer, click on buttons "Not" then "Apply". This adds, in the List box of the Filter Toolbar, the two additional filters "attribute_XXX Exists" and "Not attribute_XXX Exists" (where attribute_XXX stands for the current attribute).

To create a filter for an Attribute and one of its values:

• after step two above select the second drop down where "exists" is showing
• choose "Is equal to". Your values should now be available in the third drop down
• press "Add", then OK

use multiple filters at once

create two filter sets by the method above select the filter sets you want

• Shift-click for multiple, continuous sets
• Ctrl-click for non-contiguous selection

press the "and" button on the right => a new set is created which combines your selected sets

User feedback

Another feature which can be useful: name for the filter. If you combine simple filters, it can be difficult to read what is it doing: For example: (Responsable is equal to Erwan and Type is equal to "draw") can be renamed as "Erwan Drawing", and could be more simple to manage.

Another thing: It could be useful to see/mask attributes when clicking on the attribute icon.

filter on an icon

• add an icon to a node by highlighting the node, click on the icon on the left or Rt-click>Icons
• in the filtering "edit" dialog, choose "Icon" in the drop-down list at the top left, the second drop-down grays out, and the third contains the list of currently used icons
• click "Add"

User Feedback

• This is a great feature! Honestly, I think in a lot of ways, filtering by icons is a lot more intuitive than filtering by attributes. While the attributes give you a great deal of flexibility, they muck up the display at bit, and they're a lot more keystrokes to add. I really can't think of any examples of an attribute that I wouldn't rather just create an icon for. The icon is a much more succinct way of displaying an attribute about a node and it can be done inline.
  • Having said that, I would like to see a little more love put into icons. I already customized my icon library (Thank you!), but it becomes unwieldy when there are more than a small handful of additional items. You can't replace the original icons either.
• I think it would be a good idea to filter icon clock and only those icons with active warning time scheduler

Persistent Map Filters

In Beta 13 persistent filters are added. And filters can now be saved. --Terkor 18:02, 2 Sep 2007 (PDT)

user feedback

• Would like to add some plain and simple text to graphical links. It could be inserted into the middle of the arrow or with an option to move it along the line. Thanks!

• For using semantic strings in addition to numeric and logical ones it would be useful a) to have filters for "contains" (for substrings of text) as in normal content – like "contain" finds attributes with the values "container", "contains", "containment", etc. b) be able to search a string-value across different attributes

• Filtering is great to compact maps for printing, but no usable PDF was created from a filtered map (beta 17) --JR 04:48, 23 May 2008 (PDT)

• When I use filter extensively with very large map of thousands of nodes, I realize that the layout of the filtered map need some improvement. The resulted map's layout should be much compacted for the filtered nodes to be closer to the root node in order to be visible in the freemind window. For such large map, the reason to do filer is to focus so that I can see them easier. Without the improvement, it seems that the layout still follow that without the filter. The map becomes a tree with sparse nodes but stretched apart. It defeats the purpose of the filter somehow. If you need, I can provide a screen capture to show what I meant. Please tell me how. --yushen 16:16, 5 Apr 2008 (PDT)

• I find that it freezes up a lot when using folding and unfolding while applying filters. It is, however, a really powerful feature. To complete its power would it be possible to have a way to copy only selected or filtered nodes? Sometimes you want to select these nodes and put them in another application, but when I filter, select all and then copy-paste, I get lots of other nodes included.

• Worked well for me. Especially like the filter on icon - no muss, no fuss.

• Great feature. Filtering on an icon: For example if you have "OK" icons on some nodes and want to see all other nodes (= not OK) use filter "contains icon OK" and define filter "Not contains icon OK" using button "Not"

• This great new feature has a little BUG. Situation: I have two maps opened and use the filter "Currently Selected Nodes" on one of them and switch between the maps. When I switch back to the filtered map I don't get the view that I had before I switched away. Instead I get the node filtered that was selected when I switched. (Terkor)

• Filtering and Reminders are a very nice combination. Filtering on icons allows to distinguish between nodes that have a Reminder "whose time has not jet come" and nodes that have a Reminder "whose time has come". But: in the filter composer these two different states are represented with the same icon (a clock). You always have to guess which icon represents which Reminder state. --Terkor 19:40, 30 Jul 2007 (PDT)

• It would be helpful to be able to give the composed filters names. --Terkor 19:45, 30 Jul 2007 (PDT)

• When filtering is activated there is a drop-down menu left to the "Edit" button. There you can find all the filters that were used that FreeMind session. It would be very effective if I could not only chose one of those filters but chose more than one. And then being able to chose in what order they are applied (for example by moving the filters up and down). Of course I can also get the desired filtering by using the Filter Composer. But with the described option I would be more flexible in quickly combining the filters. And being able to apply some "simple" filters in an order would make things more clear in some situations. --Terkor 06:50, 31 Jul 2007 (PDT)

• A refresh view button would be nice. Or even better: auto refresh (maybe as an option) when a node is changed. Explanation: When I mark a node (representing a task) as done and I use a filter that shows me all the undone tasks and hides the done tasks, the node is not filtered as long as I switch filter off and on again. Could be more handy. --Terkor 06:09, 3 Dec 2007 (PST)
  • I second this notion. Nodes that meet the filter conditions after the filter is set don't get filtered out. So for instance, I want to create a filter to show not checked off items. Once I check them I want them to disappear automagically. --RazielJaTier 16:26, 20 May 2008 (PDT)

• If I filter "Currently Selected Nodes", in all the now empty space of the map there appear the ovals of the hidden nodes that allow to move them around, when you move your mouse to that places where they are when filter is not applied. --Terkor 06:42, 15 Dec 2007 (PST)

• If "Selection Bubble" is "on" and a filter is applied, also hidden nodes can be "selected" when you for example move the focus using the arrow-keys. --Terkor 06:42, 15 Dec 2007 (PST)

• Is there a way to assign attributes when you assign an icon to a node? For example I have lists of phone calls / emails that I have to send. I usually assign a phone or envelope icon to that node. I would like to assign an attribute or ActionType so that I can sort by them later (i.e. see a list of phone calls or emails that I have to make).

• It would be very helpful to have an option to filter out entries without children. This would be very valuable e.g. in situations where in a big map, several nodes have a "Tasks" subnode, and one wants to look at all tasks currently pending.

• Would it be possible to be able to add free text to the map to allow for titles and possibly a Key?

• Filter toolbar should be a standard toolbar. Should be able to show/hide filter toolbar from the View menu. (I am not displaying the main toolbar, but may need the Filter toolbar from time to time)

• Attributes have great potential. However I find editing a bit inconvenient. Would it be possible to add a small handle to existing attribute table (say immediately left of the cells, similar to the handles that are already on top of the table), so that a single attribute could be selected to be copied, cut, or even dragged and dropped to copy/move it to other nodes? Keyboard modifier keys (shift or ctrl) could be used to specify moving/copying in a drag and drop operation. arg0.

• Am loving the attributes. Using beta 20. Am doing a massive project on the muscular system. muscles directly effect eachother. For each muscle there is are muscles directly affecting it, muscles that it directly affects it, and muscles with a mutual two way relation. Each muscle also has a common problem associated with it. Each muscle group is an attribute and each muscle is a value. Filters will be used for self diagnosis, and finding the appropriate stretches. For example hands and shoulders due to using the computer a lot.
  • Would be great if graphical links can be attributed, so that they can be filtered. + have the option of making them visible or not.
  • Better sorting of attributes would be good. Like an attribute mind map, for sorting and the depth of the filter that is undertaken.
  • To have Attributes and Filters integrated on the mind map. Anyone know how to write scripts to run a filter function.
  • To filter core structure of mind maps: this would be good for summarising the link to other mind maps.

Thanks for your time. alf

• to encourage the use of attributes and filtering, it would be good to have the search/filter box always visible by default (I have a large screen, and the font/font size take all the extra space on the right, that could be used by this search/filter box (also, there should be a specific menu "search" or "filter" --Patco

WYSIWYG-Editing for nodes and notes

Yet to be documented

I like the WYSIWYG and how it's available when needed. On piece I find lacking is the ability to easily add link <a href=.... and the ability to click on it to pull it up. That feature would be very useful -- Matthias 21:57, 18 Feb 2009 (UTC)

HTML paste tip

Paste of HTML content creates one node. Use Edit -> Split to split it in many nodes.

Tools->Split Node is more efficent. --Phil31753 10:06, 9 Apr 2009 (UTC)

User Feedback

Version beta 0.9.16 I personally hate the WYSIWYG mode but I understand that others might find this feature helpful. My problem is that I copy and paste very often into and out of mindmaps. Due to the WYSIWYG mode I can not pasten normally into thunderbird. Copying into mindmaps is terrible. Suggestion: having the possibility to select between plain text modus or html modus or mixed modus. Helpful would be also a shortcut to "paste as plain text and split" and copy as plain text. --bebach 2008-04-05

Love this feature, especially the way that the notes export to javascript enabled html. Couple of observations.

• The popup notes in the Javascript export don't seem to work in IE (care factor 0?).

• It would be good to be able to view the note in the main mindmap window, maybe as a popup.

• It would also be helpful if there was some sort of visual indicator of the existence of a popup note in the exported html - at present the note just magically appears as a rollover.

• Don't know if it is due to this feature, but "edit long node" now introduced an extra line feed if the enter key is used (confirm on enter turned off).

--RichardForster 18:04, 19 Sep 2006 (PDT)

I'd like to have the option to collapse the WYSIWYG editing area to free up more screen real-estate.

--Marko 21:45, 23 Sep 2006 (PDT)

• The WYSIWYG screen estate seems a good place to do all 'richer' content editing: e.g. if freemind would let me edit the multiline text nodes there, and, manage the attributes, i'd find that very usefull.

--Neanderlander 22:01, 24 Sep 2006 (PDT)

• Some way to change the width of nodes would be great, so free form text can be flowed into thinner columns. Also a way to insert <br> easily without resorting to the html view.

--pedron 1:02pm, 10 October 2006 (EST)

• In version 0.8 the note attached to a node was very discrete in the sense that it would only show when the mouse is on that node. This new version has many editing features but it's "in your face" (so to speak) until you physically minimize it. I wish there was a way to configure it so that it would act like the previous version while keeping it's editing extras. Or at least have the option of toggling editing toolbar...

--Cichutki75 8:09pm, 19 October 2006 (GMT)

• In version 0.9 max node width function does not work properly. At least not all nodes for the map created in version 0.8 keep the set width. I did not discover the rule. Some keep some don't.

--CautiousChaos 02:22, 12 Nov 2006 (EST)

• The editing panel is intrusive when it is not needed. A hotkey to open/close it would be helpful. Clicking on the note icon resulting in the panel appearing could also be very helpful.
• It seems that word-wrapping does not work in plain-text mode for nodes, making the node to be of single line extending far too long. I had to change the mode of each node to make it word-wrapping. Only using rich-text mode, the wrapping would work. I wish that word-wrapping would still work as in 0.80. --yushen 15:03, 5 Dec 2006 (PST)
• It seems that in editing long node, the splitting function would only work with word on different line, while in 0.80, the function works even for words on the same line. --yushen 15:03, 5 Dec 2006 (PST)

--Djerr 17:42, 20 Jan 2007

• Using a 0.8 map with notes in 0.9 beta version show all notes as pop up but they can not be modified with the format tool or even edited in the layout page. I have to delete the note and create a new one under the 0.9 version.

I usually write short nodes but very long notes in order to have a "clear" map. 2 special comments on notes :

• For long notes, the time the pop up is shown is too short. Would it be possible to define a time on how long you want this pop up to be shown ? Or even better: to show them as long as the cursor is pointing on the node (or perhaps the note icon).
• I could find very useful (especially for my long notes) to be able in the format menu to change not only italic or bold or font size etc.. but also COLORS, to be able to see very fast the most important points

---

• I don't understand the purpose of freemind's notes feature. It seems to be an incomplete feature. On the one hand, it could be used as popup notes for a node on the freemind map. On the other hand, it could be used to provide the details for a topic expressed by the node. I think both should be possibilities, but currently only the first really seems possible.
• I want to use freemind to develop an outline into a full-blown paper. To do that, I would start using freemind to create an outline of the paper. Each node in the mindmap would be an entry in the outline with the node level equating to the outline level. Then, when I start fleshing out the paper, I would use the notes feature to fill-in paragraphs of information for each node. The problem is that there is no good way of outputting the paper -- the notes become popups rather than entries in the paper.
• Is there a way to export a mindmap from freemind in such a way that it could later be imported?

--DavidMasterson 22:00, 23 May 2007

• I don't like this feature in the current implementation. This is because i use this tool to connect IDEAS and usually i use formatting things only in the end. A paragraph, a sentence, a list, a word list this are things that i want to have in a hierarchical structure, not as a rich text. In 0.8.0 the copy/paste feature converted a paragraph/list to an hierarchical tree of nodes. That was a better aproach then to get a simple html node. The split feature doesn't replace this functionality better. I hope and trust that you will find a way to add rich text nodes without so much interference with the old style of working. Maybe a paste option with paste as nodes, paste as html will resolve this issue?

--Terkor 16:25, 21 June 2007

• Great Feature, but it could be more handy if the (by far) most often used formating-features like Bold and Italic could be used without opening the editor. Just mark the words or characters you want bold (or italic), click the Bold (or Italic) icon (or use Ctrl-B /Ctrl-I) - and that's it.
• It is not "logical" that you open the editor with "Alt-Enter" and close it with "Ctrl-Enter". It should both be the same.
• "Split" should have a shortcut. Suggestion: Alt-Enter or Ctrl-Enter. (See previous paragraph.)
• When I open the editor whilst I am editing a node, the editor should know the actual position of the cursor and if some text is already marked.
• Double clicking the note icon should open / close the note editor. (Generally icons should be more clickable like the link icon. (Double) clicking on the clock icon of notes with a Reminder should open the calendar. And right-clicking an icon should open the "Select Icon" box.)
• The popups displaying the note content don't match size if a note is very short. Does not look nice. (The same for popups that show the "Created", "Modified", and "Reminder" times - too wide.
• Choosing colors should definitely have an icon in the tool bar of the editors. So it takes six (!) clicks to change the color of a word. (Opening the editor not counted.)
• The editor for notes and the one for nodes behave differently, when it comes to use the Enter-key. The node-editor just enters a new line (as one would expect) when I press Enter. The note editor enters a new line and a blank line. Here I have to use Shift-Enter to get just a new line. Why the difference?
• The note editor by default adds a blank line before the text and after text. I see no reason for that. (The node editor does not do that either.) Just takes away precious space.
• In order to save space, please place the toolbar of the note editor next to the menu of the editor. As it is now, there is much unused space. The editor should look more slim.
• Like the note-editor of FreeMind 0.8, the note-editor of version 0.9 should automatically close when not needed. (Or at least there should be an option to pick this behavior.)
• The little arrows on the splitting line that allow to hide/show the note editor should be wider (not higher), they are very hard to click quickly. Perhaps put each of them in a clickable wider boxlike area.
• "Note" in the menu "Insert" is gone. Should be there, that's where people look for it, and it seams a logical place for it (also for a "Remove Note"-function). And "Add Note" / "Remove Note" should be in the context-menu, when I right-click a node.
• How about a function that turns a node into a note and vice versa?
• The popups of long notes should be scrollable.

--Pascal 11:33, 20 Nov 2007

• It would be great to have spell checking in notes editor
• In version 0.9.0 beta 14, bold, italic and underline buttons have no icons (if you click where they should be, it does the job, but you don't see the buttons).

--puckja 13:51, 3 Jan. 2008

• Great feature! Now I can add formated text/graphics in the note panel (SimpleHTML). Cut & Paste from webpage and even MS Word 2003 with figures and math equations works great.
• More user friendly functions such as FONT property in toolbar or shortcut, HIGHLIGHTING capability, insert HYBERLINK (it can be added with direct HTML coding), configurable property for the inserted graphic(size/alignment, etc.) would be great. (It is already very good! Thanks!)

--puckja 16:09, 3 Jan. 2008

• It seems that all the figures inserted in the note are not "locally saved." It may a a SERIOUS BUG! If the figures are cut & paste from Internet, then they will not be available if machine is offline. If the figures are C & P from local file (such as MS Word), then the source files are still at your personal Win TEMP directory, which means that they will be deleted some time in the future while you think it is saved. Other software such as PersonalBrain will save the file and change the HTML src location after you saved the "brain", but Freemind seems to leave it unattended.  :(

• HTML Editor won't let you put a table in a node. Well, that's not quite true. The "table" item n the menu bar has all its items disabled, but you can edit the HTML to make the node have a table. Why is the menu bar operation turned of for nodes?

--Anton 18:16, 20 Jul 2008 (PDT) a

• The HTML Editor seems to have a 'template' which is the same for all nodes. It would be nice to have

1. 1. User-definable style sheet, that could set font, size, colour, box width ...
   2. ... for each level

--Anton 18:25, 22 Jul 2008 (PDT)

Filter macros on the mind map itself would be good. They could be adjustable. And/or/not etc, could be done by clicking the different parts of the map corresponding to the attributes/icons under question. This would be nice because it would be more natural to drill down the search in this way. Filter by cliking on a node, filter again on what is left within that filter etc.

• The WYSIWYG is a big + for my workflow. However, I often use this program w/ widescreen setups and it would be a great if I could reposition the WYSIWYG window to the left, right of the Map window.
• It would be v.nice if the editor could interpret latex formating for math/equations.

--Lessfield 18:01, 19 Feb 2009 (UTC)

I agree with Lessfield - I want to create extensive notes, instructions etc. and I'd like to be able to move the note editing pane to the right side. To go with this, I'd like to be able to control the node layout so it's a tree expanding from top to bottom or left to right (like Visual Mind's Standard, left-to_right and right-to-left views).

Possible bug:- frequently when I'm typing in the notes pane, the insertion cursor zips back to the beginning of the line and text insertion continues there. I don't think I'm accidentally hitting any hot keys ;-) --MikeS 12:09, 19 Jun 2009 (UTC)

Scripting via Groovy

Groovy scripts may be attached to individual nodes in the map. When "evaluate" is selected via the menu or keypress (Alt-F8), all nodes in the map are searched (depth-first) for one or more attributes named "script". If such an attribute is found, the value of the attached attribute is passed to the Groovy engine to execute.

Only those nodes whose attribute keys start with "script" are evaluated. However, there is nothing preventing a script on one node from acting on other nodes via normal operations (e.g. node.getChildren or similar) as far as I can tell from the code.

Assignment vs. Operation

If the value of the script attribute starts with the equals sign ("="), then the node text will be replaced by the RESULT of the script evaluation. Be careful not to overwrite your nodes! See the example for using the "node.getText()" in an assignment script.

If the value of the script attribute does not begin with the equals sign, then the script will run and may affect the map, but the expression result is not assigned to the node text.

Available Operations

When the Groovy binding is created, two variables are set:

• "c" is set to the MindMapController
• "node" is set to the MindMapNode being evaluated

You will have to examine the FreeMind source code for operations on the interfaces. See the examples for a few operations such as setting the node text, node color and background color.

Examples

I have only played with the engine for five minutes, and spent about the same amount of time on the Groovy home page. The following examples work for me:

Prepend the node text with an integer representing the node depth. Note that the script starts with '=' so the result is assigned back to the node text. <groovy>=node.getNodeLevel() + " " + node.getText()</groovy>

Set the text color of a node: <groovy>node.setColor(java.awt.Color.RED)</groovy>

Set the background color of a node: <groovy>node.setBackgroundColor(java.awt.Color.BLUE)</groovy>

Project Manager: Don't do this; use methods of the controller c instead. If you manipulate the node model directly, you'll miss the undo and flow control capabilities of FreeMind. Please, consult methods from the interface MindMapActions only.

Advanced Examples

All advanced examples have been moved to the Example scripts

About Groovy

For people unfamiliar with Groovy scripting, it's home page, an introduction, a review on slashdot.

How to get started

1. Create an attribute for a node. The attribute must be named "script"
2. Create the Groovy script and set as the value of the attribute
3. Press Alt-F8 or select "Evaluate" from the Tools menu.

Wish for Groovy script editing

• Need good editor for writing such script for the attribute. The current attribute manager is not suitable to write long script. --yushen 15:41, 15 Jan 2007 (PST)
• I know I could dig through the source code and figure it out, but even a rudimentary object reference would be great. --RazielJaTier 15:01, 21 May 2008 (PDT)
  • Created a page called FreeMind / Groovy Object Reference to start compiling known information into a reference page. If you're familiar with any of the objects and navigation, lets start documenting it here.
• Debug Console while you're running scripts from the map. If you have a typo, the script simply does nothing. It would be nice to get an error or some sort of feedback. --RazielJaTier 15:01, 21 May 2008 (PDT)

Scripting the application, not the documents

When I first read about Groovy in Freemind, I was irritated by the fact that the Groovy scripts are part of the Map (as script attribute) and not the application.

To my opinion it would make more sense to allow Groovy scripts to be plugged into the application and work on either Map.

An example of how this could work can be found here: [1]

In a similar way each script could be bound to a menu item in a user menu or a button, and be provided with the current 'context', maybe containing a model of an open Map when activated. This way it would be possible to create complete maps on-the-fly without having to create the Map and the root node with a script attribute first(!).

This is from user's point of view more like scripted plug-ins and filters in Gimp or Steinberg-like music software, and not so much like the VBA thing stored inside office documents.

--Det 07:28, 16 Mar 2007 (PDT)

Tips of editing script

1. Before there is good editor for script, I use a template node to define long script then use copy and paste to duplicate the script.

--yushen 15:41, 15 Jan 2007 (PST)

TaskJuggler Integration

TaskJuggler is a opensource project management tool for linux. It covers the complete spectrum of project management tasks from the first idea to the completion of the project. It assists you during project scoping, resource assignment, cost and revenue planing, risk and communication management.

Idea

The idea is to have special task, resource, and account nodes on the mindmap.

Usage summary

- Tasks are defined as subnodes of TASKS node.
- Resources are defined as subnodes of RESOURCES node. 
- Accounts as subnodes of ACCOUNTS node. (not yet implemented in 0.9.0 beta 18)
- Taskjuggler task/resource/account info contained as node attributes. 
     You can find more info about these attribs in TaskJuggler documentation
- After entering all task/resource/account info in freemind, use File-->Export to 
    export the task/resource/account info that is currently VISIBLE 
     (your freemind filters can be used to limit the info being exported to TaskJuggler).

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

Project file (TJP)

We generate only includes with FreeMind, so we must write simple TaskJuggler main project file:

project simple "Simple Project" "1.0" 2005-06-06 - 2005-06-26

include "example.accounts.tji"
include "example.resources.tji"
include "example.tasks.tji"

taskreport "Gantt Chart" {
  headline "Project Gantt Chart"
  columns hierarchindex, name, start, end, effort, duration, cost, revenue, chart
  timeformat "%a %Y-%m-%d"
  loadunit days
  hideresource 1
}

htmlaccountreport "accountsreport.html"{
  timeformat "%d-%M-%y"
  accumulate
  columns index, name, weekly
}

Include Files (TJI)

Mindmap with defined TASKS, RESOURCES and ACCOUNTS nodes can look like this:

We can export include files which we have defined in our project file directly from FreeMind mindmap:
- example.resources.tji - from RESOURCES node (File->Export->Resources from RESOURCES node to TJI file..)
- example.tasks.tji - from TASKS node (File->Export->Task from TASKS node to TJI file..)
- example.accounts.tji - from ACCOUNTS node (File->Export->Accounts from ACCOUNTS node to TJI file..)

In TaskJuggler our project will look like this:

Download

Here you can download full example without accounts feature and here with accounts.

Account support

Becouse accounts functionality isn't in CVS yet. You need use this binary or get Freemind from CVS (CVS tag: fm_060405_integration) and aply this patch.

The rest of the new features

Icons

User icons

User icons can be added. PNG files of the icons have to be added to the folder <user_home>/.freemind/icons. All *.png files in <user_home>/.freemind/icons are handled as user icons. Size is not limited to 16 px x 16 px.

User feedback:

• FreeMind adds "icon_" to the user-given name of a user icon. The name should just be the user given name - without ".png" of course.
• When adding user icons, they appear in a random order within the side bar and mixed with the Freemind built-in icons. Is there a way to control this order ?
• My new icons appeared at the end of the standard ones and appeared to be in alphabetical order by filename. GREAT feature. I was able to take screen captures of the icons for Access objects and some of the Office program icons and use them in a mind map documenting a project my computer literacy students do at the end of the semester. This is far superior to having to use a limited set of standard icons which aren't particularly meaningful.
• Q: what is the procedure for adding user icons in Mac OS? Which is the correct destination folder?

• User icons are not included in exported mindmaps (flash at least).
• Including icons does not appear to work (WinXP - Freemind 0.9.0 Beta 19). Have assumed that placing .png files in C:\Program Files\Freemind\Icons should ensure that they are included but have nt been able to get this feature to work. Is this the correct placement for the icons folder in Windows?

You put the icons in the wrong folder. Look again above. --Terkor 03:23, 21 Oct 2008 (UTC)

• I think I put the files in the correct place. I put them here: c:/Documents%20and%20Settings/fklein23/.freemind/icons/*.png

and they did NOT appear in the icons menu nor on the left hand border -- User:fklein23

• I also note that the menu runs down past the bottom of the screen and though my mouse cursor is actually selecting hidden icons, I can't see them until I click the right mouse button, at which time the "mystery icon" appears! -- User:fklein23

Selecting, Substituting and Deleting Icons

• Using Shift+Click on icon bar substitutes the current icons by the new one.
• Icon bar Icon Selection Dialog: click on icon with control key hold: removes the first matching icon, with alt key removes the last one. Icon Selection Dialog: Shift+Enter or Alt+Enter can be used as well.
• Icon hot keys available in Select Icon Dialog. They can be set in Preferences > Keystrokes. --Terkor 13:26, 3 Sep 2007 (PDT)

User feedback:

• Substituting icons with Shift+Enter in the Icon Selection Dialog (as announced in the changes for Beta 9) does not work. Just inserts the selected icon.
• Can I suggest you add a couple of icons as standard namely '$' and '$$' too? Thanks.

Latex Plugin

With the new Latex Plugin (Insert > Latex) you can now add mathematical formulas to your nodes. Select a node and chose Insert > Latex. Under the node a default text in a box is added. When you click on that box a simple editor opens to enter the Latex code. Close the editor and your formula is displayed underneath the node.

Erase the formula by clicking Latex again when the node is selected. --Terkor 06:31, 3 Sep 2007 (PDT)

User feedback:

• I like this one, but there may be an easier way for access of this functionality (a shortcut or s.th.).
• Great, adds a whole new field of use to FreeMind!
• Tip: Can also be used to just add a text to node instead of a mathematical formula. If you just add text without any commands, you get italic text in the box. Everything put between \mbox{ and } appears as normal text. (The code is contained in the default formula that is added every time you add a new Latex box to a node.)
• Exporting the formulas does not work for at least for some filters (Flash at least).
• LaTeX formulas do not scale with the rest of the map but have always the same size. Please make them scalable if possible.--Christofb 12:19, 30 Oct 2007 (PDT)

• Nice feature. It would be nice if the graphical representation of the formula could appear with the higher quality associated with LaTeX. Is it possible to improve via anti aliasing or exporting/printing via postscript?

Linking to nodes in another mm-file

You may create a link to a node in another map by appending #node_name to the map path

User feedback:

• Bug?: This feature does not seem to work for file urls ex: file:\\dfs\folder\file.mm##Freemind_Link_335867258. It also does not seem to work through the website applet.
  • The URL is wrong. Must be file:///dfs\folder\file.mm##Freemind_Link_335867258

• Bug: This very useful feature seems to work for the current instance of the target map only. Once the target map is closed and reopened the link points to the root node in the target map, even though the link text is still correct. Closing the source map and reopening it works fine. - Tested based on FM 0.8.0 maps with the Windows version of FM.--Uli 02:51, 13 Feb 2007 (PST)

(•) Solution:

• create a (temporary) local link to the intended target node from any other node within the target MindMap (MM) (ALT+L)

 => i.e. the target-node must be the 'referred' node in this case meaning that it must be the second of the two nodes composing said (temporary) local link.
   -> Digression: A local link is created by first left clicking on the source node and, while holding down the CTRL-button, then 
      left clicking on the target node, then press Alt-L. The link is created in the source node (a green arrow appears).

• Now highlight the 'referring'/source node, i.e. the other of the two nodes in this (temporary) local link (the one with the green arrow) and press CTRL+k (edit link)

 => the freemind node name of the 'referred' node (i.e. our desired target node) appears (eg. #Freemind_Link_676133257)

• Copy (or better still, cut) this node name [ctrl+c/ctrl+x].

• In the Source MM create an external link to the target MM (eg. c:\mindmaps\TASKS.mm),

 => Digression: An external link is created thus: CTRL+k (manually enter path) or SHIFT+CTRL+k (choose path). A red arrow appears.

• highlight the node with the newly created external link and append the copied/cut freemind node name to it using CTRL+k (edit link).

 => The result could look like this: c:\mindmaps\TASKS#Freemind_Link_676133257

• Finally, delete the local link if you may so wish (this step is only relevant, if you'd only copied and not cut the node name above).

• Being able to link to a specific link should not only possible within freemind but also from other tools. This could be established via adding a command line parameter giving the node ID to select right after startup.

Edit Styles, Patterns, Automatic Layout Patterns

Change Format Dialog

New "Change Format" dialog box that lets you edit node and edge attributes at once. (Format > Change format...)

User feedback:

• The very powerful and useful dialog box needs a shortcut, and an entry in the context menu when you right-click on a node.
• A preview-area would be helpful.

Manage Patterns

There is now a manager for the physical styles. (Format > Physical Styles > Manage Patterns..)

User feedback:

• It is so helpfull!!!!!
• Would it be possible to also show (and even change) the shortcuts of the patterns in the pattern manager?
• Styles should be renamed Format Macro. They are a great feature.
• Feature Request
  • A real Style formating feature with style_registry, where the formating is defined, would be great.
• Bugs
  • Style names are not proper UTF-8 encoded e.g. ü in become FC in patterns.xml and not ü
  • beta 18 couldn't generate new Style from current node. Pressing Save&Exit didn't save and a Notice pop up without any message.
• All version including RC1 - F11 window does not allow to choose a font size which is not in the list (11 for example) this is not consistent with the tool bar of the main window. I'm using style with 11 pt font size !
• Im experimenting with TONY BUZAN's mind mapping and memroy techniques. Eventaully i wnat to make a mind map of his book's and share, however copywright questions arise?? anyone know about it. Regardless of this question it brings to my attention the powers of formatting and memory enhancement.
  • Is there a way of patterning the width/thikness of the links?
  • Would be great to have a plugin that does a network analysis of the mind map and formatts acordingly. Hubs/number of links to a node = format value. Format value's to stimmulate as many sensory modalites as possible (NLP/ memory techniqes)
    • These formats can then have an icon/ memory hook to filter by.

Edit Automatic Layout Patterns

It is now possible to edit Automatic Layout Patterns. (Tools > Preferences ... > Automatic layout pat...) Click there on a pattern and the new "Change Format" box appears (here called "Change Pattern").

User feedback:

• I also really like this feature, BUT I also would badly need to automaticaly layout for more then 4 levels (even if I could not change it by myself)! This is one of the most important things missing yet in this great application. Thanks anyway!

• Great! Could you please make the area "Automatic Layout Styles" a bit wider. There is no reason to keep it so tiny.

• I find the automatic layout a bit limited; after four levels, the layout remains the same, but I oftentimes use five, six or seven levels. Only feature I'd like to see added to the program is to set an auto format for a larger (custom-defined?) amount of levels.

• I love automatic layout, I use it pretty much exclusively. The only thing that sucks is that it completely disables the ability to apply localized formats to nodes with it enabled. Can you put in some sort of cascading functionality. The default would be automatic, but you could override the formats at any time. Also put something like the "reset position" like "remove custom formatting". --RazielJaTier 15:27, 20 May 2008 (PDT)

• I second Raziel's motion. I'd love to be able to store code snippets in a map, but automatic layout disrupts my custom formatting. --Neontapir 09:47, 23 Jun 2008 (PDT)

• Wonderfull. Would it be possible choose (at least) color to be applied per branch instead of per level. This is more in tune with Dr. Buzan's suggestions.

Find And Replace

FreeMind has now a Find & Replace dialog. It combines the old "Show Map History..." (which is not there any more) with a classical Find & Replace dialog.

Found nodes can be sorted by Date, Text, Icons, Created, Modified, and Notes.

You can choose: Export Selected Nodes, Replace All, Replace Selected, Goto, and Select.

When no search text is entered all nodes of the map are shown in a sorted list.

User Feedback

• Characters like äöü" are not displayed correctly (the HTML-versions are displayed).
• Could it be possible to hide columns that I don't need to see?
• Thank You for the "replace" addition. How difficult would it be to have a "find" on all opened maps ?
• Is it possible to extend the "find" in all opened maps ? When searching for a text pattern, it will save to open individually each maps and execute a find. --Fb5 02:16, 15 Nov 2007 (PST)
  • I second this - extremely needed (at least for me :) ) to be able to search across several maps!! --Spacevulture 11:59, 21 Jun 2008 (PDT)
• Would very helpful if nodes themselves could not only be sorted alphabetically, but also by Icons. And maybe by Date, Created, Modified, and Notes.
• A drop-down menu with recent search/replace terms would be helpful, to avoid retyping when repeating searches. --arg0 08:38, 25 Feb 2009 (UTC)

--MikeS 10:38, 5 Nov 2009 (UTC) I need to be able to search for patterns in note text, across all notes at one time. This could be incorporated as the default or an option in the Edit>Find command. Alternatively, a separate 'Find in Notes' command could be added. Thanks

Display Selection as Bubble

In the menu View there is now the option to display the selected nodes inside a bubble: "Display Selection as Rectangle on/off". You can also pick this new option in Preferences > Defaults, where you can also choose the color of the bubble. "Display Selection as Rectangle on/off" is now (Beta 13) by default "on". --DimitriPolivaev 14:50, 9 Sep 2007 (PDT) --Terkor 16:57, 9 Sep 2007 (PDT)

User Feedback

• Like it very much.

Tabs

There are now Tabs (like in Firefox) representing the opened maps. Properties > Appearance > Look And Feel > Use Tabs lets you choose if you want to use tabs. --Terkor 10:36, 26 Aug 2007 (PDT)

User Feedback

• Could it be possible that the tabs only appear (option) when more than one map is opened?
  • I'd like this too. Screen space can be important. --Kenrob 04:14, 5 Oct 2007 (PDT)
• Could it be possible to show and hide tabs in View?
• Could it be possible to rearrange the order of the tabs (by dragging and dropping them)?
  • drag&drop, automatic hide when only one, close one/all via context menu etc. would be very usefull (i.e. like it is possible in firefox) --flusi100 08:00, 24 Feb 2008
• Would be nice to close the maps by using their tabs (context menu with "Close" when right-clicking on tab, or middle-click on tab).
  • Agreed - this would be useful. --Kenrob 04:14, 5 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • ++ to that. Seemed unnatural not to have a context menu on the tabs.--Doubi 23:08, 18 Apr 2009 (UTC)
• Now with tabs and Save All it would just be the next logical step that (as an option) all the tabs would open when FreeMind starts, that were open when FreeMind was closed.
• Switching tabs takes 15-20 seconds. Especially slow after FreeMind has been minimized and computer has been suspended/hibernated. Version 0.9.0 Beta 18. --Emkeyen
• A cross (X) on the tab similar to Google Chrome would be welcome. I also agree with the above comments on the use of a right click context menu and the dragging and dropping of tabs to reorder them.

Move Back and Move Forward

There are now Move Back and Move Forward buttons in the Toolbar (also available in the Navigate menu and by using Alt-Left and Alt-Right). FreeMind stores a chronology of the selected nodes. Using Back and Forward you can navigate back and forth to those nodes - even if they are in an other opened map. --Terkor 19:31, 26 Aug 2007 (PDT)

User Feedback

• Very Helpful!
• Could there be a way to get back to the latest selection by one click.
• How about a popup list of the previous and next selected nodes (like in IE or FF)?
• Useful when navigating in large maps--Fb5 02:13, 15 Nov 2007 (PST)

Export Filters

Open Office Export now for the ODT format.

Besides the two export filters for TaskJuggler there are three new filters for exporting:

• As Java Appelt
• As Flash
• As TWiki --Terkor 19:06, 27 Aug 2007 (PDT)

User feedback

• Embedded links on images and then exported to flash do not work.
  • Video of Bug
• HTML links and then exported to flash do not work either. Please see:
  • http://www.efectokiwano.net/mm/

--VincentD 02:30, 9 Nov 2006 (PST)

• Export to Flash does not support Rich Formatted nodes.
• When a map that contains a hyperlink is exported to HTML there is obviously an error in that exported hyperlink. --Terkor 20:34, 2 Sep 2007 (PDT)
• In exporting to Flash, I have to enter URLs as http:www.yahoo.com, instead of http://www.yahoo.com, for the link to work.
• I'm using 0.9.0 beta 19, when exporting to flash, http links fail. I've watched the video and visited efectokiwano, still not working. Does the exported html require a special server build to serve the content?

--Berti 12:04, 13 Feb 2008 (PST)

• I tried an export to txt tab separated this worked in 0.8 fine if I rename the .mm to xml and try to view it I get an error it seems the html tags are going to break it. I also tested the xsl form this side Tabulator separated text ? FreeMind

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Import_and_export_to_other_applications

Wishes concerning Export Filters

--AlexandreDC 08:47, 13 Mar 2008 (CET)

• It would be useful to indicate some XSLT templates to produce HTML exports: we could thus choose whether and how to display attributes for example.

--User:DRBusch

• To me, the most useful application of freemind is organizing complex documents (e.g. a thesis or book). To this end, I've modified the freemind2beamer script into mm2thesis. Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to parse in the xsl document such that I can (for example) put a hard line break into the text of a node and use the second line as a label. For example, node=abcd\\labelabcd would be translated into \section{abcd}\label{sec:labelabcd}. Any thoughts? I haven't dug into the java mm to beamer conversion yet.

--User:Mjschaffner

• For me who uses Freemind (or my employer who uses Mindmanager) it would be great if import and export of Mindmanager 8 - Files would be possible

General Bugs

• Save All causes current tab to be marked as "dirty" even though nothing has changed (thus requiring save on exit)
• Generating Output for a printer is almost impossible. On Ubuntu 7.10 printing does not work (nothing happens), PDF export does not work (Error popup with no content), SVG export does not work (Error popup with no content), PNG export does not work (nothing happens), JPG export does not work (nothing happens), (Jave and Flash export thus is working, but it's not printable in a browser). So I am limited to screenshots which are unreadable in larger mind maps. Preview is ok, by the way, but I would need a feature to resize the whole map to paper size.
• If I close the calendar not with "cancel" but by just closing the calendar window, I can't reopen the calendar. I have to restart FM to be able to open the Time Management dialog again. --Terkor 06:27, 15 Dec 2007 (PST)
• I updated to java runtime enviroment 1.6 and was not able to save any mindmap any longer. Message was "Map ist write protected" --bebach 13 Nov 2007
• Sometimes I use freemind just as a simple extended clipbord. In openoffce 2.0 writer I get the message, the clipbord format does not exist. In thunderbird I always have to paste without format to see anything. It is painful. It seems to me that I was not able to switch freemind to the plain text option. I am looking again the documentation. --bebach 8 Nov 2007
• Using the PDF export feature results in an error message "null compatible with Global antialiasing enable key". That was no problem in Version 0.8
• I can't save a new mind map under MS Vista. Modify and save of an existing mind map works.
• After pasting a node at a new position, keystrokes get stuck. The moviment is possible only changing the focus with mouse. After changing the focus, keystrokes (up,down,left,right) works normally.--Leslie 05:16, 17 Apr 2007 (PDT)
• Ok, the new version is very nice... but there is still the Problem with printing. Sometimes the print is to small or to great or a part is cut off. Its difficult to configure the printer for good mindmap printings--Bkmzde 00:31, 16 Feb 2007 (PST)
• Bug ? : MindManager Import doesn't include "Html Notes" hooked to the nodes. In 0.8, the note is "translate" in a text note.
• The context-menu that appears when you right-click while editing a node does not work. (It only contains "Copy" - which does not work.) Perhaps adding "Cut", "Paste", "Split" (at cursor-position), "Edit Long Node..." (with the editor remembering the cursor position and if some text is already marked). And perhaps some formating: "Bold", "Italic", "Font...", "Paragraph..."
• Display error: Zoom is now (Beta 14) working perfectly, as far as I can see. Good work! --Terkor 14:41, 21 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • OK, there is a little bug: use Format > Bubble. You will see that on most zoom levels text in the bubble is not centered correctly. On both sides of the map text is placed too much on the left side. --Terkor 11:33, 22 Nov 2007 (PST)
• Display error: Edges don't connect properly to the root. With widths 4 or 8 the effect is very obvious, and if "Bezier" is chosen). --Terkor 07:51, 11 May 2008 (PDT)

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

• File Locking appears buggy: When you open a file with File Locking enabled in Preferences, the first open generates the error that 'file locking' failed. Subsequently, all attempts to open a file result in 'File is already being edited by (Username). Opening as Read-Only.' FreeMind does not appear to be willing to release this lock, except by turning off Experimental File Locking and turning it back on, so the entire feature appears to be broken. Specs: Windows XP SP2 machine, .mm file is on local drive which is also shared.--Perholm 22:43, 13 Sep 2007 (PDT)
• Auto-Save Confirmed Buggy: I WOULD SUGGEST THAT THIS BUG IS AN EMERGENCY, AS DATA-LOSS CAN/WILL HAPPEN IF THE FEATURE IS RELIED UPON. Auto-Save at present does not work properly and should not be relied upon. Bug analysis: It appears that the timer used to control auto-save is only activated once at program launch, and when the auto-save interval has passed the timer does not reset for another auto-save interval, but instead NEVER generates an event again. Test: Set auto-save to 20000 milliseconds. Open an existing MindMap, and make a change within 20 seconds. If you check the .freemind directory, a single auto-save will be generated after 20 seconds, and no further auto-saves will EVER happen. If you again open a MindMap, and DO NOT make a change within 20 seconds, no auto-save will ever happen of any changes including the initial change. I would therefore conclude that the timer used for the auto-save interval is being programmed incorrectly, and does not launch another auto-save interval.--Perholm 22:56, 13 Sep 2007 (PDT)
• The JRE 1.6 update 2 bug from javaw.exe on using the function of Open/Save File, it will waitting more than 30 sec per times, The JRE 1.5 update 11 will be better. --Josepchangtw 16:55, 15 Nov 2007 (PDT)
• Certain actions, foremost among them the paste action, cause FreeMind (or perhaps just the editing area) to lose focus somehow, so that no further keyboard input has any effect, until you click in the editing area to restore the focus. This severely detracts from the keyboard-only usability of FreeMind.
  • Please describe how to reproduce and see this behavior DimitriPolivaev 14:40, 18 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • After pasting a node that has been copied from Freemind, the keyboard has absolutely no effect (really! I even tried mashing it randomly) until you click the mouse in the window, or switch to another window and then back, or do something else that focuses the Freemind window. Pasting text or anything else works just fine; only pasting a copied node (or nodes) causes the problem -- to put it as clearly as possible, the problem only occurs when pasting from Freemind to Freemind itself. Also, I should mention that this is not a problem in 0.8, only in 0.9.
  • I have a very similar problem, under Ubuntu 7.10. It happens that: 1. whenever I paste something, I lose the ability to use the keyboard (all shortcuts), editing, entering text. 2. I can get keyboard back by switching to another window or virtual desktop, but after I repeat this (paste something) the third time, I lose keyboard for good until I close and re-open Freemind; 3. mouse works and I can save my map. Please note that for me it happens both with 0.8 and 0.9 branches, when running 0.9.x both with jre 5 and 6. Zecg
  • Same here on openSuSE 10.3, x86_64. It's hard to reproduce when it happens but I also suddenly use the ability to use keyboard. I've found no way to get keyboard back except closing and re-opening Freemind. Mouse input still works. Appears to be introduced in the 0.9.x branch regardless whether I use jre 5 or 6. It's a show stopper. Is there a way to record all keyboard/mouse input to help to track this down ? --Steve
  • The March 3 build seems to have fixed this bug. If others can confirm this, you can probably delete this thread.
  • Not confirmed. The problem is still in Beta 16, just re-tested. A few times it happened after pressing INS, type in something, CR, CR, type in something, CR and cut the nodes again with CTRL-X, CTRL-X or a similar sequence. --Steve
• Node dragging problem:
  When dragging the small circle in front of a node and moving the node vertically to raise the distance to the upper or lower node, this behavior in FreeMind seems to have changed.
  In previous versions, the node could only be dragged to the right, up or down, but not more to the left towards the parent node. There was kind of an invisible vertical border. You could not drag the node beyond this border towards the parent node. This border was excellent to keep all child nodes aligned while changing the nodes' distance.
  Now this doesn't work any more. In the current version, this border seems to be gone unfortunately. When I change the vertical distance of one node to another node, I cannot keep the moved node in it's horizontal position any more.
  (By the way, pressing <CTRL>-left-mouse-button on a node's drag-handle also changes the distance between nodes, but this functionality is not compareable, because it changes the distance of all child nodes in this column, not only of the selected one.)
  • Solution could be double-click on the small circle: it appears to work very well.--Luciodp 05:32, 7 May 2008 (PDT)
• Node dragging problem 2:
  FM 0.9 B15. I created a map with FM 0.8, then switched to 0.9. If I copy the contents of a MSWord table into a node, MM gets it formatted with HTML and displays the table perfectly. The problem arises when I move the node to another branch of the tree. The html content gets converted to ascii (e.g. <html> becomes &lt;html&gt;) and thus all the formatting is lost. --ScavType 14:09, 04 Jan 2008 (PDT)
• Print Preview shows wrong view after selecting Fit to one page. Steps: create map that's more than one page wide with default page setup options. Edit page options to fit to one page. Choose Print Preview. Expect it to show one page. Instead, it showed the first page of two pages as if ignoring the "fit to one page" option. After clicking next page button, print preview then realized it should zoom to fit to one page. --JimK
• Hover text for Print icon on toolbar says "Print..." implying that a dialog box will open but instead it just starts a print job. Text should say "Print" or it should open dialog box. --JimK
• Opened a mind map created in 0.8.7. Looks good except that beta 17 put a cloud around the entire map---i.e., main node---that I can't remove, and all the child nodes on the right of the main node have been moved down far enough to be offscreen when view is centered on the main node. (One branch on the left side is fully expanded to four levels, so maybe that had something to do with it, but folding it back up makes no difference.) Tried to toggle off the cloud using the Insert main menu, the Insert shortcut menu, and with shift+ctl+b combo... no luck. This is my first try with 0.9 b17; and already I can't use it for existing maps. --foxcole 13 May 2008 UPDATE: Ah... in beta 17 I can't add a cloud to the main node either, so that seems to be a property that's not natively available at the main level. I've no idea what's putting it there in the first place but now understand why I can't remove it.
• Open a mind map that saved on a network share with windows version of freemind, doesn't work. I got the following failure: An error occoured on opening the file: MindMap:\\mondsee\homes\ko\Eigene Dateien\Brainstorming\FTM\WLT-Event.mm. It's only while opening a file on a network-share - at my local desktop it works! --Osthoffinnovations 09:12, 30 May 2008 (PDT)
  • The space in the path name "..\Eigene Dateien\.." plus double back slash "\\" causes this bug.

As a quick fix add to FreeMind.java on line 517 (after “// bug fix by Dan:”) 
  if (System.getProperty("os.name").startsWith("Windows XP") && url.toString().startsWith("file:////"))
    command = "rundll32 shell32.dll,ShellExec_RunDLL \"" + url.toString().replaceAll("%20"," ").replaceAll("%25","%")+"\"";

• If I put a graphics in a node and use the HTML editor to try to scale it down .... "size=50%" or "width=120px" ... that has no effect. Anton
• Freemind uses .mm as its file extension, but on Ubuntu (and probably other Linux distributions), this is the same as "Troff MM input document," so the file manager misidentifies all Freemind maps as Troff documents. Perhaps use .mim (MInd Map) or .fmm (FreeMindMap) or something else as the extension?
• On 0.9.0 beta 20: If you select "save" for an unsaved document, but you cancel the action, a message box appears saying "Saving Failed", but it's just a cancel. snookiex 11:35, 27 Oct 2008 (GMT-5)
• 0.9.0 beta 20: Create child node using keyboard shortcut (eg. Insert) then press same kb shortcut (or if you have a second keystroke generated thru keystroke bounce) the second child-child node is created as closed node, ie not ready for keystroke entry. Basically pressing the "create child node" should not create a new node if the same keystroke is seen before the node has been "closed". (0.9.0 beta 15 did not display this behaviour - not tested intermediate versions yet)
• 0.9.0 beta 20: Note icon sometimes disappears and hint fails to display. Moving node causes note icon to display and hint to become active again.
• 0.9.0 RC 6, Win7 x64: Can't open *.mm files by double clicking on them. I found out that I can start FreeMind from the command line with a .mm file if I pass the complete path of the file as first parameter. FreeMind seams to search for files in its installation directory instead of the current directory (or makes the install dir current while running). --ungerik 18. Jan 09

General Comments

• Paste with No Formatting: I'm incredibly annoyed that the new RC6 automatically pastes HTML formatting into my maps. While useful SOMETIMES, other times this is extremely frustrating. I spend a lot of time researching topics from blogs to wikipedia and beyond. Sometimes when I paste something the font size is massive, or other HTML formatting comes with it, resulting in me having to re-edit EVERY node EVERY time I paste it so that I can get a consistent format on my map. Can we add a toggle for HTML Pasting, or even a special command called "Paste Text Only" or something like that???? MUCH APPRECIATED!!! **I LOVE THIS PROGRAM**
• Feature disable request: Would be great to disable scroll with touch pad as on my MacBook Pro if I accidentally touch the touch pad it starts scrolling very slowely and freezes all functions until it has stopped.
• Feature request: Would be nice to have a Latex export for the mindmap. This especially helps structuring a bigger report without having to type everything in latex again. Nice would be if you could say till which level you want to have headlines (after that just enumerations / lists).
• Feature request: I'm thinking to add a "Rotate" node function. When a node is selected followed by a "Rotate" feature, the selected node and its child nodes will be rotated by 90 degree. This will form a flow chart. Thus, we can used FreeMind to build flow chart easily using its friendly interface.
• Feature request: Add a number "0" icon. The addition of numbers "8" and "9" in .9.0 Beta 18 are great, but "0" is all that's left to complete the set. This will allow users to use these icons in many ways other than just setting priority. For example, when using Freemind to take notes, if you have more than 9 items which would benefit from a graphical numerical identification, double (or more) digits could be used with great benefit. I may even suggest that a black icon with white text be used—black being a conceptually appropriate color for the number "0".
• Feature request: Add the possibility to add a description to a graphical link, or even attributes (would be perfect). I use Freemind to create Moore and Mealy state machines in XML. So adding a text or attributes to a graphical link would be a milestone to reduce the complexity of the drawings.
• Feature request: When you move mouse over a node text is displayed in popup cloud, but it dissapears after few seconds. I would like for it to stay. Also, It would be great to be able to focus that popup and edit (ok that's a hard one, but at least copy) the contest there right away. --Kova 06:49, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)
• Feature request: I would like an option for text view (bottom) and tree view (top) to show (expand) when you move mouse over them. Right now I have tree view maximized when I'm editing the tree, but when I want to write something in the nodes or have a look what is written I have to go down, resize the text view, write text / view the text and resize again. It would be great if it resizes to half for example if I just move my mouse down to bottom where text area is. In short, I need quickly switch between node edit (text) and tree edit (graphics). --Kova 06:49, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)
• How about a forum for this stuff? Wiki is great for a single document, but not for discussion or suggestions like this. --Kova 06:49, 19 Jan 2008 (PST)
• In the German translation the use of capitals is just a mess. (Sorry!) For example "Speichern Unter..." Why a capital "U"? --Terkor 06:58, 15 Dec 2007 (PST)
• Since some changes in the properties of FM need a restart of the program in order to be seen, there should be a restart option after you changed settings or in the file-menu. --Terkor 02:18, 19 Nov 2007 (PST)
• any idea how I can print or give out a mindmap WITH the notes I made to the nodes? I think I tried all export possibilities but could not find a way. --bebach 17 Nov 2007
• Since I communicate with others using html exports or java/ flash exports, I uploaded to the web, it would be wounderful to have an internal ftp client in freemind and have an export option "upload by FTP". --bebach 8 Nov 2007
• Missing Export feature: I love the XHTML-Export with includes Image of the mindmap. For many reasons it would be much more comfortable to have just the images with an imagemap, for example a link collection. It will save user one very painful klick an the looking for the right section in the html export. HTML-Export as an image map would be much better for some users since the are not used to the also very nice flash or java web exports. They are very good for experienced users. --bebach 8 Nov 2007
• Moving a branch from one side of the root to the other - the text and child branches should "flip" to enable this
  • Um, they do! Drag the node onto the root node and drop when you can see the gradient appear - then you'll mirror the structure. Otherwise you're just repositioning the node. --Kenrob 04:34, 5 Oct 2007 (PDT)
• I believe the Calendar / Scheduler feature can offer great benefits if improved. I suggest a pop up will should come up when the reminder time arrives. Similar to MS Outlook, you should have options of delaying the reminder or canceling it. --Felipe 13:33, 1 May 2007 (PDT)
• I love freemind and work with it a lot some hours a day! I am looking forward to the new version and I start testing from v0.9 beta 12 --bebach 24 Aug 2007
• Feature Request: Database views are a powerful feature. I wish something like this for freemind. The idea is to store all the data in some ordinary mindmaps whithout redundancy, and on the other side work on them with the help of several virtual mindmaps, like views in database systems. The intention is to benefit from all the advantages of database views in freemind with a similar feature. To build the freemind views could xquery be used.--maxreeb 6 Sep 2007
• Feature Request: Lose Nodes. While FreeMind works great for information that is already relatively structured in your mind, it is VERY difficult to use when your information is very disorganised, like any kind of stream-of-consciousness type note-taking. In that scenario, the fact that FreeMind forces you with an iron hand to structure information before you're allowed to move on to the next idea, forces you to completely stop the creative process maybe 10 times a minute, which is why I tend to AVOID FreeMind and favor even just WordPad any time I'm creative, because FreeMind works against me by forcing me to be so structure right off the bat that it grinds the creative process to a halt. I truly feel that you need the ability to have what I would term 'Lose Nodes', which is notes that are simply floating on the page and detached from the tree. Of course the goal is to get them attached to the tree in an orderly fashion, but for the sake of picking your own brain, you actually need the ability to simply drop them on the page, and then drag-drop organize them later by binding them together into a tree. You would do the exact same on a physical desktop -- you would cut out little pieces of paper, which would initially just be floating around on the table, until they slowly become organized into a tree. The fact that people have done this for hundreds years, I think proves that this is a natural and intuitive workflow, one that FreeMind easily both could and should support. By the same token, if you realize that a tree is poorly structured, you would want to take it apart and re-assemble it in a new way. As part of that process, maybe 20 or 40 nodes would be temporarily lose, and a 'Lose Nodes' feature would allow you to simply drag the nodes lose from the tree, drop them in the white space, and then later attach them somewhere else. I think this would be extremely intuitive. And very lastly, in this mindset of being able to do in FreeMind what you are thinking, I think you need to support more than one root. Although the GOAL is of course a neatly structured tree with a single root, you again don't necessarily arrive there through clean path -- no, the path is messy and disorganized, and then order forms slowly. I feel I would be able to structure large and experimental concepts much more easily if you supported Lose Nodes and multiple roots. With multiple roots, you would be able to detach section of the tree into a new tree, work on them concurrently, until you realize that they're part of the same concept, and glue the trees back together. These two features together are what is preventing me from being truly productive with FreeMind from a discovery perspective. I have no doubt that FreeMind works like a charm for information that is already relatively organized, but for discovering new and original concepts, FreeMind forces a structure on the information that is not mature for. Rather, FreeMind helps your produce a graph of the end result, but doesn't fully help you get there. --Perholm 16:23, 12 Sep 2007 (PDT)
  • "Lose Nodes" or "Unattached Nodes" or "Additional Roots" are available in MindJet's Mindmap. They are a class of "floating" objects that include labels and graphics. I recall the implementation of this came in on of the service packs for X5. X5 also added things like callouts, markers, map parts, and storing the map as XML. Once again I would recommend looking at Mindjet's MindMap and if you are a Windows users trying the 30-day evaluation to get a feel for what is possible in both capabilities and interface. --Anton 18:05, 20 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• • Understood the issue. What I do is setting "disable key type" off, and "key type adds new" on. So each time I am hitting "return" key and starting to type again, it is a new node automatically created. In fact it works then like "wordPad", a node being equivalent to a line. To keep my map "clean" all those new nodes are created under a node "to be cleaned" or even a new map. Then I do the assembling by moving nodes with the mouse, and this is all the power of freemind. Faster to reorganise information than any other tool I have ever tried. I like your expression "kind of stream-of-consciousness type note-taking". This is exactly my use (several hours/day for years) of Freemind which is my main/only data entry software, and it is the best tool I know for this. --Fb5 03:57, 23 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • About the multi root discussion. The same result could be attained easily now with the tabbed windows. For large maps already difficult to see, multiroots would make them really messy. An improvement for your concern could be to have an option to view tabbed windows "side by side" ("arrange all" in Word from Windows).--Fb5 04:15, 23 Oct 2007 (PDT)
• Feature Request: Rearranging Nodes. I'm wondering why, when you're rearranging the order of nodes on the same hierarchical level, why you're only allowed to move a node *before* another node by dropping things in the top half of the destination node. All the time, I need to move a node so it comes *after* another node, but you can't simply drop the node in the bottom half of the destination node to move it to come *after*. And by the same token, there's NO way to move a node to be the last one without dropping it in the right-side of the *parent* node. This is frustrating, really frustrating, and there's no real logic to it... who made the decision that you can only move nodes *before* other nodes, but not *after*? Why did you decide to make it like this and not the other way around. And why is the only way you can get a node to the bottom of a list, to drag and drop onto the right side of the *parent* node. I run into this probably 20 or 30 times an hour, and the current design seems arbitrarily selected. You should be able to move nodes both *before* and *after* each other by dragging and dropping them into the top or bottom half of the destination node. I feel that nothing else is consistent and makes sense. Sorry for my rant, I just feel that there are some things that don't follow GUI 101. --Perholm 14:00, 13 Sep 2007 (PDT)
  • A simple workaround is to drag to the second-last position, i.e. the top ½ of the lowest node. When you have everything else repositioned, drag the lowest node to it rightful place. --Kenrob 04:25, 5 Oct 2007 (PDT)
    • I think this is unacceptable as a solution. Workaround, yes. Solution, no. --Perholm 14:12, 10 Oct 2007 (PDT)
• Feature Request: Copy/Paste Paragraphs. I'm an author trying to use FreeMind to structure a large literary project, and it would be incredibly helpful if FreeMind had the following functionality: If you grab some text from Word (which might consist of for example 10 paragraphs), it would be incredibly helpful to get each of these paragraphs as individual child-nodes. The reason is that we're using FreeMind to organize a book-type project, of which some has already been written, and we need to get each paragraph of a chapter into a separate child-node in FreeMind so we can rearrange the blocks the FreeMind way, which by the way works fantastically. But at the moment, we can't find any other way than to copy/paste each single (friggin) paragraph individually. And the same goes for when you're trying to get something back into Word; it would be great to be able to simply select a branch, and get it copy/pasted into word as a simple top-to-bottom text copy where each child-node is an individual paragraph. That way you can use FreeMind to organize a literary project, knowing that the project ultimately has to end up in Word, but FreeMind is far superior for organizing and structuring the information. Perhaps consider a 'Paste Menu' like Word has, which asks you how exactly you want to paste, i.e. 'Keep Formatting' or 'Text Only' -- a similar menu in FreeMind could ask if you want to turn individual paragraphs into nodes, or if you want to paste the whole text as a single node. This would be REALLY helpful to organize literary projects. This would also allow you to much more easily use FreeMind to edit something that is initially written as stream-of-consciousness, i.e. any brainstorm. Such a brainstorm would likely simply consist of lines upon lines (or paragraphs upon paragraphs) of disorganized ideas written into Word or a text-editor. When you bring this into FreeMind, you ought to be able to turn each 'idea' (i.e. Paragraph) into a separate node. Right now, I can find no other way than to copy/paste each line individually, which is enormously labor-intensive. UPDATE: OK, FreeMind already has this feature, but it doesn't always work, because if you're pasting from Word, the text coming in is interpreted as Rich Text, and put into a single child node. If you want the behavior I describe, you have to first copy the text in Word, paste the text into Notepad (not Wordpad), copy it from Notepad, and paste it into FreeMind. I think there should be the ability to interpret text coming from Word as 'text-only' and not automatically bring in the formatting. In the case of a literary project, the formatting is only interesting in Word... in FreeMind you only want to edit the text, the formatting is irrelevant in a FreeMind context.--Perholm 23:11, 13 Sep 2007 (PDT)
  • You can use Edit->Split Node after inserting a formatted paragraph into the node. It splits the node in single paragraphs. DimitriPolivaev 14:19, 17 Sep 2007 (PDT)
  • Using the Edit->Split Node is very time consuming for a large number of branches. Why can't we retain the behaviour of Freemind 0.8.0? It seems that a tool to organise thoughts should work at the lowest level of granularity not create huge "blobs" of text. When I reorganise my ideas by pasting paragraphs from a document in 0.8.0, each paragraph in the document beocomes a separate branch. I can then drag and drop branches to reorganise my ideas. This issue is so important to me that it will be a show-stopper for 0.9.0 as far as I am concerned! --Phil31753 07:35, 9 Apr 2009 (UTC) Tool->Split Node achieves what I (and others in this section) require.--Phil31753 10:05, 9 Apr 2009 (UTC)
  • That's interesting discussion. When I copy from word to freemind, each paragraph is copied as an individual node and that is what I expect and what You would like. Maybe your freemind settings are different than mine ?--Fb5 04:05, 23 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • It is now I met the issue You described Perholm. This is when copying form WEB BROWSER to FREEMIND. The copy keeps the html formating and keeps it in one node. This is a real annoyance for me too and that would stop me to move from 0.8 Version. Is it possible to have a "Paste Special" or "Paste as text" menu which also split paragraph as nodes, please Dimitri ? One advantage of the html copy would be for tables, which doesn't work in 0.8. Thank You. Franck --Fb5 03:46, 6 Dec 2007 (PST)
• SIMPLICITY , SPEED and RELIABILITY : Those must be the main strengths of Freemind. I am using Freemind as my main computer interface for data entry for three years, ending with large maps (several 10s of thousands nodes). I have tried many other softwares and my conclusion, there is simply no equivalence on the market. It would be a shame to slow the program or the user-interface because adding new features. So, my expectation is to have user-options for enabling or not those features (attributes and Wysiwig). Thank You so much for the great work. Franck --Fb5 20:03, 2 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • I want to second that: my maps are not nearly as big as Franck's but for me simplicity and reliability (as already provided by 0.8.0) are most important, too. Please try to keep focus on the simple things instead of adding too many features.--Christofb 12:27, 30 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • Absolutely right. It is wonderful that new features are being added, but it is ESSENTIAL that Freemind is able to run QUICKLY on any computer, or it won't be useful. --Loydog 2:44, 8 Nov 2007 (PDT)
  • I absolutely agree to that. I'm a freemind user for years now and though I'm looking forward to see new features in freemind I always loved the fast and easy way to create maps on every occasion. So maybe if there are resource consuming new features they could be inserted as plugins or sth. like that so users are able to decide wether they will activate a feature or not--lpdubel 02:06, 14 Nov 2007 (PST)
• Attachments (Multiple): It is necessary to be able to add multiple attachments to a single node. For example, one node may have an attached pdf doc, word doc, excel sheet, and other mindmap. kberardinelli 09:17, 26 Oct 2007 (EDT)
  • What I do is to create subnodes (even without any text) and assign an attachement to each of them. --Fb5 02:26, 15 Nov 2007 (PST)
• Attachments (Deletion): Currently, there seems to be no way to delete an attachment. This needs to be very easy to do (perhaps by right-clicking and selecting 'Delete Attachment'. kberardinelli 09:17, 26 Oct 2007 (EDT)
• Feature Request: Especially when using freemind on a beamer I would like to have a fullscreen mode ie without window decorations etc. Just the canvas, even without menu bar or status bar. -- barney 13:52, 29 Oct 2007 (MEZ)
  • I would love to see that too. Think about using it in a classroom for a brainstorming on the beamer. --Christofb 12:27, 30 Oct 2007 (PDT)
  • Agree, for uncluttering and focusing on one task. -- Vibrog 10:43, 17 Nov 2008 (UTC)
  • Agree with you at all! I would like to use freemind for presentation on technical presentation. --dinny
• Feedback: In Beta 13 (the one before 14), I could remove the note area from the view and use ctrl-< to activate the note area, make it visible again, and type ahead. This still works in Beta 14. When done, I could use ctrl-< again to focus the mind map node again and the note area vanishes again. In Beta 14 the note area stays visible and I need to ctrl-<, ctrl-> to move out and hide the area. The behaviour in Beta 13 was much easier to work with. -- barney 13:52, 29 Oct 2007 (MEZ)
• Feature request: IMO it would be very useful to be able to add some metadata to a freemind map as a whole like titel, description, author, keywords --lpdubel 02:06, 14 Nov 2007 (PST)

• Feature request: I would like very much to have a better method for transclusion. Compendium allows reuse of nodes across multiple views (whether maps or lists) and automatically handles updates from any instance to all appearances across a range of maps. Compendium even places a subscript counting the number of transclusions for a node! Can one hack this up through per node addressing in FreeMind? Would that handle automatic updates? I suspect a database back-end for nodes makes more sense. I want to construct constructing Maps through addition across a collection of nodes (again, like Compendium) instead of filtering maps by subtraction across a single map's nodes. As a first approximation to this, I'd like to save Filters independently of maps. --Jay_Dugger, 2217 Sunday, 2 December 2007

• Feature request: Ship it! (sorry, but it would be nice to have a released version that works with the lattest java version), and well, it's been 2 and a half years... Tomh 05:09, 10 Jan 2008 (PST)

• Feature request: I really miss a strike-through along bold and italic, with a keyboard shortcut. Cheers.

• Feature request: Nothing big, I just wanted to ask weather its possible to bind the structure to too points again (left right) from the rootnode like it was it 0.8 and that change this when you want. Because its much esear to start a structured mindmap using only the keys... Also I liked to have two sides to divide the thoughts when speaking about pro and contra. It Would be Great if it was possible to ad this as an Option to the root-point. (Inculding the move navigation with strg that could move one node all around the root) Thank you! --X-Site 16:29, 9 Mar 2008 (PDT)

• Feature lost? In 8.0 version when you copy nodes and paste in MSWord you immediately create a "structure", that is a hyerarchic level: very useful if you want to adjust titles or paragraphs in preliminary notes, or import them in Power Point slides etc. I'm a teacher and use Freemind with students for brainstorming, organize ideas and create texts or presentations from preliminary notes. Now in 9.0 version this feature seems to be lost. Why? Do tou know any solution? Many thanks for your work.--Luciodp 05:24, 7 May 2008 (PDT)

• Try Tools->Split Node --Phil31753 10:05, 9 Apr 2009 (UTC)

• Feature request: I would like to be able to apply a cloud to a parent node but not necessarily its children; or maybe to only some selected children... similar to how a network or gateway is depicted in a flowchart. foxcole 13 May 2008 UPDATE: Perhaps a more accurate request is to be able to choose from a limited set basic shapes to apply to a node or set of siblings but not children.

• When I export my map to a text based format (i. e. HTML), FM starts with the right side and then continues the left side. For me it is not intuitive I start my maps on the left side - as I would read a newspaper or magazine. I guess it is not difficult to allow the user to choose if FM should start with the left or the right side. --Terkor 16:28, 13 May 2008 (PDT)

• Feedback: Thanks for all your hard work, absolutely amazing product. --RazielJaTier 15:23, 20 May 2008 (PDT)

• Changed Functionality: In 0.8 I could hover over a node to select it, hold down ctrl, which would effectively prevent other nodes from being selected. Then move my mouse all the way across the map (again without worry about another node being selected), then click on an icon *with the ctrl key held down*. The icon would be assigned. In 0.9 you have to release ctrl before you click the icon, otherwise it will simply ignore it. This is a simple little detail, and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but if it's not difficult, and you don't have other plans for ctrl clicking icons, I'd love the 0.8 behavior back. --RazielJaTier 15:23, 20 May 2008 (PDT)

• Suggestion: Create localized version of linked data. When you use alt+L to create a link to another part of the map, it would be nice if you had an option to actually create "ghost" versions of that data instead of having to click in the link. If you edited the ghost version, or the original, they would stay in sync. --RazielJaTier 15:23, 20 May 2008 (PDT)

• Suggestion: It would be neat to be able to with single click generate the framework of a thinking tool. When I say thinking tool I am thinking mostly of the thinking tools created by Edward de Bono such as his Six Hats, CoRT and many others. See http://www.edwdebono.com/ and http://www.edwarddebono.com/ for more info. An example would be right clinking on "Six Hats" and from your current node it would create six child nodes: White Hat, Red Hat, Yellow Hat, Black Hat, Green Hat and Blue Hat. For each of these child nodes an empty blank node would be created as well. Lastly your cursor would move to the blank node under White Hat and then you can start typing. Such functionality might be created with Groovy script but most would not want the difficulty of programming Groovy script. It is also possible to cut and paste a section of a mind map but that is more cumbersome than a single click. --Mars729 17:59, 31 May 2008 (EDT)
  • A library of templates would be a great contribution. --Anton 17:52, 20 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• Suggestion: When working with images it would be nice to be able to paste or drop an image to a node. --trinxie

• Suggestion: When adding an image link, if it is a file, should it be possible to store the relative path? Would be great if the whole model is distributed to someone else. Maybe this possibility already exists. --trinxie

• If I install Freemind using aptitude in Ubuntu 8.10, I have the /usr/share/pixmaps/FreeMindWindowIcon.xpm to use in my panel, but as the available version in Ubuntu is 0.7.1 and I have some MMs created with later versions, I decided to try the 0.9 RC1, and downloaded it (freemind-bin-max-0.9.0_RC_1.zip). For my surprise, there is no icon to use in this zip. Please include one, or maybe more than one (see http://www.menyhart.net/blog/software/freemind-icon/). --Itamar 12:33, 9 Feb 2009 (UTC)

• Observation: Many of these suggestions and feature requests are or are similar to ones that exist in Mindjet's MindMap. It used to be that this leader had a great advantage in that it supported scripts. Now that FreeMind has Groovy it is catching up. All we need is the library of neat applications that use the scripting language! I was a keen user of MM2002 and looked forward to MM-X5 and its shift to XML, but the real shift was for the benefit of people ho were programmers, not the baseline users. Unless you were a EmbeddedVisualBasic programmer the change was a setback. The library of HTML export templates was lost - Mindjet's response was "its all XML so you can write your own XSLT. Well some of us can't or don't have the time. The other killer for me was that Mindjet tied in too closely with Microsoft Office. It couldn't export to anything else. So in reality one had to spend hundred of dollars more for each upgrade of MindMap since it always needed the latest version of Office. However I would recommend looking at Mindjet's MindMap and if you are a Windows users trying the 30-day evaluation to get a feel for what is possible in both capabilities and interface. --Anton 17:52, 20 Jul 2008 (PDT)

• When you enter note-data for quite a number of nodes the map is so full with the note-icon. I would appreciate an option in the preferences as for the attribute icon, that disables showing an icon. (Tools>Preferences>Appearance>Show icon for attributes) --Kai 21:59, 20 Mar 2009 (CET)

• Feature request: automatically calculating the print zoom factor according to a user-defined number of mosaiced printed pages. E.g., user should be able to specify he wants the map printed on N x M pages (M pages across and N pages high) and the print zoom factor should be calculated automatically. That would reduce the need to compute the best print zoom factor by trial-and-error. --arg0 09:29, 24 Apr 2009 (UTC)

• Feature request: settings for customising arrow links (e.g., ability to specify that links start from the root part of a node rather than from the leaf part). Moreover, it can be really tricky to rearrange the shape of an arrow link, especially short ones, since all parameters (starting point, tangency) are changed simultaneously when dragging a link point. Fine editing should be implemented. --arg0 09:29, 24 Apr 2009 (UTC)

• GENERAL OPEN SOURCE FEEDBACK LOOPS WITH FREEMIND, would it not be helpful if feedback loops were integrated into the beta versions, so that one can write requests for enhancements as one is using Freemind or other open source proejcts. For example, for each function there could be a questionnaire and comment box next to it. This info could then be uploaded to a wiki. It may help organize the locations of info and spur more user involvement in the feedback process. Could it also be possible that the uses of the porgramme are logged and statistically analyzed by the developers?

• Feature request: I'd like a feature "View/Zoom onto Subtree" corresponding to the standard "View/Zoom to Fit to Page", doing exactly this: set zoom level and viewport so as to to make the subtree with the currently selected node as root fit the screen. The subtree root should be aligned at the left side of the screen for a subtree with branches pointing right and vice versa. --PhilShvarcz 16:07, 30 Sep 2009 (CET)